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Tag Archives: Pittsburgh

A few weekends ago, I visited Pittsburgh for the first time and had a blast. My husband and I stopped at the National Aviary – a wonderful, non-profit indoor bird zoo – and walked around downtown for hours. We ended up in the Strip district, gaped our way through the amazing Robert Wholey & Co.’s fish-and-everything-else market and had lunch at Enrico Biscotti Café. Next door is the Biscotti Company, a veritable paradise of baked goods. The Café’s lunch menu features rustic pizzas and pastas, salads, and various sangaweechs. Sangaweeches? (Yeah, I’m not sure what the plural of “sangaweech” is so bear with me, here). Whatever the plural form, a sangaweech is a hearty sandwich made on their house pizza dough.

I had a delicious artichoke, mozzarella and roasted red pepper sangaweech. My husband got the special pizza of the day and it blew our minds. In a good way. And I am not a fan of salami! This however, was delicious: Garlic. Salami. Mozzarella. Blue cheese. Incredible. We left determined to replicate this pizza at home at all costs. Fortunately, the Pennsylvania Macaroni Company was just couple blocks away and there we purchased a pound of Daniele Genoa salami: fresh, melt-in-your-mouth salami. Yum.

This recipe is our recreation of that magnificent pizza. Which we basically made the next night. And, o.k., again two nights later. It is that good a pizza! Enjoy!

Ingredients:

Pizza dough for one pizza – make your own, or store-bought is fine. The better the dough, the better your pizza.

2-3 tablespoons olive oil

½ teaspoon dried Italian herb blend

¼ cup Parmesan*

12 large, thin slices of good salami. Good salami.

1 cup shredded mozzarella

2 tablespoons minced garlic – fresh or jarred

¼- ½ cup blue cheese crumbles

* You know your tastes: More or less garlic? Go for it. More or less cheese? Of course. This is a base recipe for you to modify at will. The Café’s version was minimalist and delicious.

Try to ignore your Miniature Schnauzer, who waits, ever hopeful, for food to fall from the sky.

How to Make It:

If you have a pizza stone, put it in your oven and preheat the oven to 425F. Give the stone a half-hour to heat up.

Spread the pizza dough out on a sheet of parchment paper.

Drizzle olive oil over the dough and spread to cover with the back of a spoon or a pastry brush.

Sprinkle the Italian herbs over the olive oil.

Sprinkle the Parmesan cheese on next.

Layer the slices of salami to cover the whole thing.

Add a sprinkle of minced garlic.

Next, crumble on the blue cheese so that a little bit lands on every slice of salami.

Last, top it all with the shredded mozzarella.

Slide your pizza into the oven and bake at 425 F for 12-14 minutes or until the edges of the crust is golden brown and the cheese is melted.